HSVP chief will be summoned, if affidavit not filed: Punjab and Haryana High Court
Saurabh Malik
Chandigarh, July 16
More than a month has lapsed since the Punjab and Haryana High Court — among other things — ordered that the allotment of plots by the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) would not be finalised in future till the acquired land’s final demarcation, the state has failed to place before the Bench the Chief Administrator’s affidavit on the compliance of the directions.
Taking up the matter, the Bench of Justice Amol Rattan Singh and Justice Lalit Batra asserted that the affidavit had not been filed in terms of the previous order. Responding to a query as to whether the directions with regard to “instructions/orders/circulars” had been so issued as directed by the court, the counsel for the respondents sought time to take instructions.
The Bench had earlier made it clear in its previous order that carving out of the plots would be permissible only on the acquired land that had been demarcated. Any plot carved out on an unacquired land would “naturally entail penal consequences for the HSVP and other respondents, other than refund of money with interest to the allottee concerned”. The penal interest would depend upon the facts of each case, the Bench had added.
The direction came after the Bench observed that a non-existent plot was allotted to the parents of Rita Arora and another petitioner in Sector 51, Gurugram. It was found upon demarcation that the plot fell on the land that was never acquired.
Deprecating “very greatly” the delay in taking a decision on granting an alternate plot to the petitioners “in a situation wholly of the making of the respondents”, the Bench had added it was not first such case before the court. Even the issue of plots being carved out on the land not actually acquired was not a “completely unknown feature on an almost regular basis”.
The Bench had asserted it was absolutely incomprehensible “why proper demarcation could not be done and plots accordingly carved out in the first place”. The court added time and again it also came to its notice that allotted plots came under litigation. But the respondents
did not stop transfers, whereas “actually immediately upon receiving notice of any litigation qua a plot that should be updated in the records of the respondents”.
Allotment of plots
Taking up the matter, the Bench of Justice Amol Rattan Singh and Justice Lalit Batra made it clear that the HSVP Chief Administrator would be summoned to the court in case the affidavit in terms of the previous order wasn’t filed. For the purpose, it has set July 22 as the deadline.
